February’s Rehearsal Tournament was all that it could be this past weekend, featuring players from near and far all uniting to get that much needed match practice! The 6th installment of our Tour featured a range of player experiences, with guests from Virginia and NY and all places in between, a handful of players who have made it to the #1 US Ranking this season and several players who are just dipping a toe in the water of competition. It was a great learning experience for so many and a perfect opportunity to rehearse for those playing the final JCT of the season in Texas this coming weekend! A huge thank you to Coach Claire who constructed the draws and directed a picture perfect scheduling display, keeping everyone happy and engaged.. Thanks Coach!
As is custom, we had a qualifying round to place competitors into their appropriate draws, then the real business of the day got going!
Premier Division saw Coach Jamie play Edward, Will and Shrikar in three consecutive matches, (without a break between each) to win the title. Giving a glimpse to the boys of what professional squash is like, Jamie demonstrated some crowd pleasing deception with teachable moments for the lucky few. There were other epic matches, with Shrikar playing exceptionally well to defeat Eric, and Lilly and Isabella always demonstrating a high level of squash. Lily played well yet again, coming off her 4th place in the DC JCT, and Isabella looks every ounce the best GU13 in the country, which she is… great to see them in the event!
D1 was an evenly contested division, with Jonathan bouncing back from his defeat to Eric Z. in the qualifying to take his vengeance over “Erics” in general and win the title over Eric T. Eric T., who has just aged up from being the BU11 national #1 is class, pure class and made Jonathan work hard, but the final was never in real doubt as muscles and a heavier driving game are hard to get past! Many other matches in D1 delighted the spectators, none more so the Kaylee, the GU11 national #1 who lost a tight match to Meredith in the second round after defeating our own Mimi first up. The 10 year old world is certainly in good hands with that crew and obviously both Mimi and Kaylee are primed for Texas this weekend having finished in 5th and 2nd places respectively in DC a few weeks ago!
D2 delighted Coach Colin and had more stories than you could believe. By way of results, Tony was triumphant, not dropping a game throughout and reminding us that it’s Tony’s world, we just live in it! Julian was 2nd, with Dev taking 3rd. On the downside, Julian missed a math class, which is not the end of the world, but not great, and Dean vs. Larry’s 20-18 tie breaker may have taken years off all our lives! Although not walking away with silverware, well done to Katherine and Siddhi for representing girl power in D2 and shout outs to Ronnie, Dean and Jesse who are never not effortful and improving every week!
Good luck to Isabella, Shrikar, Eric, Parth, Lily, Claire, Kaylee, Lilianna, Meredith, Alice and Mimi in Texas this coming weekend, hopefully the Rehearsal Event was just that perfect rehearsal needed! For those who are not making the trek to the Lonestar State, remember, TRAINING ALWAYS RUNS and we’ll have our normal Squads and Performance Program in full flight AS ALWAYS!
Our next Rehearsal Tournament will be March 4 and a great part of the buildup for those targeting the Gold and Silver Nationals as well as for those just learning how to compete. Entries for March on our dedicated webpage and until then, see you at training!